Category: overlanding

Back on Evia and about stuff, staffs, a beach, mules, a collision and the Zombiecalypse

After visiting the Akropolis in mid-May 2022, I organized some stuff in Athens.

Mainly I wanted to have a gas stove for cooking outside and gas bottles for it. While searching for this stuff I stumbled upon a machete. I’ve always dreamt about having a machete and chopping my way through scrub while hiking. And this one had been so badass. Like straight out of a cyberpunk samurai movie. I love cyberpunk and regarding the inevitable outbreak of the Zombiecalypse, it definitely would have been a good investment. But I didn’t buy it. After that, I checked on some additional recovery boards for Rosinante. They have been very good and in some situations, they would have become handy. But I didn’t buy them. Three years ago, I would have bought the machete and the recovery boards. But now I don’t like this accumulating of stuff anymore. Moving from a bigger car into Rosinante, I got rid of a lot. But still, I have so much stuff. And I’m fighting against adding additional stuff to it. Right now I would need at least three mules to get around with them. A whole mule family. Mhhh, that sounds quite nice to me… I might call them Rosinante one, Rosinante two, and Rosinante three… And in a Zombiecalypse, they would be the better option in the long run… Let’s see… In the end, I got the gas stove for cooking outside and even now, after two months, I use it almost every day and so that had been a good decision.

After having everything done in Athens, I moved straight on a ferry back to Evia. And there I found a wonderful new beach to live at. The road heading there has been quite offroady and fun and I had a wonderful time there.

After having arrived at the beach, I noticed a scratch on the backside of Rosinante’s cabin. It looked like it if I hit some plaster wall or something like that, but I could not remember doing so. I thought about it and concluded that there had been only one occasion on which that might happened. I wrote the owner of the camping shop where I bought the gas stove and did turn around Rosinante in a tight place and he confirmed that I hit the wall of his building. We exchanged photos and he said, that he would get in touch with me again. Until now he didn’t.

Every day at that beach, I cooked outside, washed my dishes in the ocean, read, and meditated a lot. One day I carved a little sand dragon out of some driftwood. I trained more with my bo staff and the other day, I found a bamboo bo staff at that beach and started to train Kung Fu strikes with it. On that day, I started to train almost every day. I’m still doing it and I can strongly recommend it. It’s super cheap (or even free), almost independent from weather and location, and feels super good. At least for me, it’s like that. If you want to give it a try, get yourself a broomstick or something comparable and do what she’s doing, and if you like, try what he’s doing.

I stayed at that beach for a week and apart from two friendly fishermen, who used the beach to launch their boat, I’ve been on my own all day One of the fishermen gave me some beer and one day, he took me on a small boat trip. The water has been fantastic and it has been awesome. I love the friendly locals.

The weather has been super nice but, once it started to get stormy, I moved along.

Crooked Rosinante needs her first car repairs

About mid of May 2022, it was finally time for one of the things, I had the most respect for: Rosinante needed some repairs.

Her steering had been crooked for some weeks, and I thought, that it was a good idea to look for a car repair in Athens and not in the small villages and towns of Greece. I’m still a lot German and that made me email a couple of car services in advance to make an appointment. Two out of ten answered. One gave me the contact to another guy who may be able to help. But the last one seemed to be competent and friendly. And what is more, he had some time to check Rosinante on the day that worked best for me. So up to that point, everything worked perfectly fine.

After having arrived at the car repair and the first diagnosis, I had built up some trust in Miltos and his two other mechanics (sorry, I forgot about your names, guys). They were very friendly and I had the feeling that they don’t want to charge me for unnecessary things or damage Rosinante. These have been my main concerns. Probably they are for most people traveling by car, I suppose.

To fix the crooked steering, an ordinary steering alignment had to be done. But in advance of that, the potentially worn-down silent blocks of the steering rack should have been exchanged. While we were talking about the necessary steps, I told Miltos about the pretty low level of the engine’s cooling liquid, that I’d recognized some weeks ago and was monitoring since then. After some checks, we found the pump of the cooling liquid to be leaking. And while we kept talking about this issue, we figured out, that the timing belt has to be swapped within the next half a year or about 15.000 km. I thought about it. In the end, I felt that the guys at Cannibals Garage are trustworthy and nice guys and because I didn’t know where I will be in the next 15.000 km or half a year, they ordered the required stuff as well.

I was very happy, that Miltos let me stay/ live in Rosinante at his garage when one spare part got delayed. I liked to watch the different customers come and go and being in the backyard of a not very big street, it was mostly quiet at night. All the time, I had not been very worried about anything regarding the repairs and I’m feeling very good about that.

Miltos has an offroad car as well and I noticed it as soon, as I entered their space. It’s my favorite small-sized offroad car: a Suzuki Jimny. I love this small, light, and very capable Jimnys. If I will one time have gotten rid of a lot of my stuff and comfort demands, a Jimny would be an option. But there is my dream about traveling with a mule as well. Let’s see…

This lightweight Jimny made me think about how heavy Rosinante is, again. She got a special rear suspension that lets her carry 3.5 tons and fully loaded she should be around 3.3 tons at the moment, but that’s still heavy. What is more, because Rosinante is a double cab pickup, the cabin on her back does hang over her truck bed. That means there is more force on her frame. It’s not as much as with the bigger and heavier cabins and the “Das Fernweh Mobil”-cabin is very well-designed and has most of its weight in the front, but it will always be not optimal. The opinions about how bad this is, are ranging from “very bad” to “not bad at all”. Thinking about this stuff, I still have the photos of bent, crooked, and snapped pickup frames in my mind. Seeing Rosinante snap into two is not a pleasant thought.

I thought about the options I had to improve the situation. At that time and even now I’m feeling not ready for the mule, so I put those thoughts aside. In the end, I managed to put the spare wheel (about 60 kg) from the cabin’s roof and the additional water canisters (about 40 kg) from the cabin’s back and side into the pickup cabin. To make it fit, I had to dismantle my enduro bicycle even more, but I’m still thinking that this won’t bother me much: I just don’t use it anymore. With these rearrangements, about 100 kg went off the cabin and found a place that greatly improved the weight distribution. That makes me feel much more confident.

I’m very thankful for Miltos and his friends for being so nice and competent. Of course, I had to pay a decent amount of money for the spare parts and their work, but to me, it felt alright and well earned by them. By the way: for the money I paid, I may have got the timing belt swapped in Germany, but not more.

If you are around Athens and need some car repairs, contact them.

What a beautiful place in nature right next to Athens

After I had taken Cori to the airport in Athens at the beginning of May 2022, I went to a car service to have Rosinantes crocked steering repaired. It has been a Friday, and we had to wait for some spare parts to arrive the next week. More on that in my next post.

One of the nice mechanics recommended the area of Lake Marathon as a home in nature for the weekend and so I went there. This place is really awesome. It’s right next to Athens and wonderful. I found a nice spot, did some walks and runs, spent my time next to a creek I was living next to, and enjoyed my solitude.